TESSA TALKS BOOKS

Thriller

💙 Northwoods by Amy Pease 💙

One-word review: Awareness-raising

Emojis: 😕🫣😶

Rating: 4.25 🌟s

My thoughts:

Northwoods by Amy Pease is an illuminating crime thriller that authentically raises awareness of the troubling PTSD condition many soldiers face once they return to the US.  The story is always compelling and fast-paced while showing the everyday challenges someone with this mental health condition faces.  I loved how Pease married the two stories into a tale that consistently kept me on the edge of my seat.

This should be a police procedural, but the emphasis on Eli North’s personal struggles turns it into a much different story.  There’s a solid contemporary tale that rides along with the investigation of the story.   I found the contemporary personal tale as intriguing as the mystery and all the thrills, red herrings, and subterfuge.

I loved the character development, which is superb, and the parent-child relationship themes that brought a much-needed relatability element that made suspended disbelief easy and the story feel authentic. It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel as it reads like a story developed by a seasoned author, making me even more excited about what else Amy Pease will write in the future.

Cozy Mystery

💙The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes💙

One-word review: Fun

Emojis: 🥱🧐🫣

Rating:  4 🌟s

My thoughts:

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes is a fun, laugh-out-loud, cozy mystery that is relatable even when it’s over-the-top. I’ll admit the first 10% had me worried about whether or not I would be able to stick with the story. It was too much- too much trying to be funny, too much exposition, and too much density. But once the murder occurred, the story settled into a fun, well-balanced story that ramped up to a nice medium pace.

The premise is hilarious. The visual of a small group of women late in their pregnancies running around the village trying to solve a murder mystery had me chuckling. And the fact that they are so relatable added to that fun. Alice is the main character and tells the story in first-person narration. Along with her incorrigible dog, Helen, and the other moms from her birthing class, she steadfastly and fearlessly unearths more than she ever expected.

I loved the village she moved to. It’s so much more than it first appears to be, and those hidden complexities make it fascinating. It holds many secrets just waiting to be discovered, and who doesn’t love discovering all the pieces to solve the mystery? I loved the many twists and turns the story took and that the end surprised me. And I’m curious to see how this becomes a series, considering that the women are no longer expecting. Despite a rough start, I found this cozy mystery entertaining.

Women’s Fiction

💙Recipe for a Charmed Life by Rachel Linden💙

One-word review: Complex

Emojis: 🫣🥰😥

Rating: 4 🌟s

My thoughts:

Recipe for a Charmed Life by Rachel Linden is an engrossingly complex tale of love, loss, family, and the importance of staying true to yourself. The combination of ingredients makes this story much more than I ever expected, which caused me to come away from it with a profound feeling of belonging that I can’t fault for those complexities.

Georgia May Jackson, the main character, is bold and determined. She knows what she wants, and she works hard to get it. But when her life falls apart, Georgia learns to listen to her heart and not just her head. The journey for Georgia to get back something inherently vital to her that she lost one fateful day is both fun and poignant as she learns that there is much more to her life and dreams than she ever could imagine.

I loved so many things about this story! The setting is an island off the west coast of Washington state, which sounds incredible and inviting. The magical realism is just the perfect cherry on top of this story. And the complexities behind the mother-daughter relationship felt so authentic. The only thing that felt off to me was the romance. It just felt too fast, considering the themes in the story. But, overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this complex tale.